NFL

Drug test doesn't define Redskins' Trent Williams

ASHBURN, Va. (AP)

That was Trent Williams a year ago, after he was suspended for
four games by the NFL for testing positive multiple times for
marijuana. He was a first-round pick gone bad, fitting right in the
tradition of a franchise that's seen far too much off-the-field
misbehavior in recent years.

But Williams did something a lot of miscreants don't do. He
owned up to his mistake, didn't hide in a shell of denial or blame
his problems on others. The third-year left tackle did not want to
be remembered as a dope-head, and he set his sights on having his
name associated with nicer words.

Pro Bowl left tackle, for example.

''I bust my butt all offseason with that on my mind, and it
fueled my fire a lot of days,'' Williams said. ''And to be able to
come out and perform with the best in the league and be noted as a
Pro Bowl guy, it'd just mean that all my hard work, it just wasn't
(whistling) in the wind. That accolade would just kind of let
people know how far I've come and how far I'm matured and the type
of player I've become. That's what I really want to be known
for.

''I don't want to be known for the guy who failed multiple drug
tests. That is me, in a sense. It did happen. I embrace that
wholeheartedly. That happened, but I have an opportunity to change
it, and that's what I want to do.''

Coach Mike Shanahan last week said that Williams is having a Pro
Bowl season, although coaches naturally push any player who's doing
well. If Williams is going to make it, he'll probably need
disproportionate support from the coaches and players in the voting
because his reputation hasn't been rehabilitated fully among some
fans.

''Obviously they haven't really heard my name with a positive
sense in the years before this,'' he said.

It works in Williams' favor that the Redskins (8-6) are winning
and lead the NFL in yards rushing, and that he benefits from
fame-by-association as the player who protects the blind side of
uber-popular quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Also, everyone loves a player who plays hurt, and Williams has
been doing just that since Thanksgiving Day, when he collided with
teammate Kory Lichtensteiger early in the win over the Dallas
Cowboys. The injury is often cited as a ''deep thigh bruise'' in
the left leg, but that tells only part of the story.

Williams said the impact with Lichtensteiger left a pool of
blood ''about five or six inches long, three or four inches wide''
coagulating between layers of muscles.

''They couldn't drain it. It was too deep,'' Williams said. ''So
there was nothing I could do but play through the pain.''

Williams estimated that he's been playing at about 70 percent
effectiveness from a physical standpoint in the three games since.
He said a similar injury his rookie year would have landed him on
injured reserve because he wouldn't have been able to compensate by
playing smarter.

''It slows me down, definitely,'' Williams said. ''I have to
rely more on my coaching and technique, other than just trying to
use athletic ability to go out and maul guys.''

Williams' athleticism has never been in question. It's why he
was Shanahan's first draft pick as Redskins coach, taken No. 4
overall out of Oklahoma in 2009.

''The question was work ethic,'' Shanahan said. ''When's he
going to get to the next level? I've seen that maturity since he's
been here, learning how to be a pro, learning how to be
accountable, learning how to lead, different things that you're
hoping your guys are going to do.''

Teammates saw a new Trent Williams during the offseason program
and at training camp, then rewarded him by electing him to be a
team captain on offense. Outsiders might have wondered about the
symbolism of such a move, coming so soon after the suspension, but
the players saw someone who had moved on from his troubles.

''Trent's stepped up his level of commitment to the team,''
Lichtensteiger said. ''To be elected captain after an incident like
that says a lot about how we feel about him as a player, as a
leader on this team. It's been a really good year for him, both on
the field and off the field in the locker room.''

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